Air India crash update as court tells pilot's father 'don't carry the burden'

Only one person aboard the doomed Air India flight survived the crash (Image: Getty)

India’s Supreme Court has declared that the pilot of the doomed Air India Dreamliner that crashed in June is not to blame. On Friday, the court told the grieving father of Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, who was at the helm of Flight AI-171 when it crashed into a hostel in Ahmedabad, that his son bore no fault.

“Don’t carry the burden on yourself. The pilot is not to be blamed,” said the bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi, adding that even the official accident report made no such accusation. The plane was en route to London Gatwick, but within seconds of taking off crashed into a building used as doctors' accommodation at the Byramjee Jeejeebhoy Medical College and Civil Hospital. The crash killed 241 people on board the flight and 19 others on the ground, with only one survivor from the plane. 

The crash killed 241 people (Image: Getty)

The pilot’s father had called for an “independent” investigation that would consider causes other than the pilot’s actions.

A preliminary report by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) which was released in July found that switches controlling fuel flow to the jet’s two engines were turned off, starving the engines of fuel and triggering total power loss

It added that, in an audio recording from the cockpit, one of the pilots is then heard asking the other why he "cut off". The other pilot responds that he did not do so. The report did not mention which pilot made which comment. 

However Judge Kant told the India court on Friday, November 7 that “nobody” could blame Sabharwal for the crash.

Addressing the AAIB’s preliminary report Judge Kant said: "One pilot asked whether the fuel was cut off by the other; the other said no. There's no suggestion of fault in that report."

'Nobody' could blame Pilot Sabharwal for the crash, said Judge Kant (Image: Getty)

The judge then slammed claims Sabharwal was to blame, dismissing them as “nasty” – and insisted “no one in India believes it was the pilot’s fault”. 

The Supreme Court will hear the case again on November 10, alongside other related petitions.

In May, the FAA ordered inspections on select Boeing 787s "prompted by reports of potable‑water‑system leaks".

Operators were told to check missing or damaged sealants that "allowed water to seep into electronics equipment bays, risking electrical shorts and potential loss of critical flight systems". Flight bosses were ordered to carry out the inspections by June 18 - six days after the crash.